Edna Karr High School treated to presentation on the Bill of Rights by local lawyer

Several Edna Karr High School students were recently treated to a presentation by local lawyer Gary Wainwright. Wainwright talked to the students about the nature of law in America. “Over 200 years ago, our forefathers wrote a document called the Bill of Rights, and it was actually added onto the Constitution because our forefathers looked to the Constitution, which created the structure of our government,” he told the students.

Edna Karr High School students listen to guest speaker and lawyer Gary Wainwright, who recently came to speak to the students during National Law Day.

He said he has always been fascinated by those historic documents. “When I was in law school, I was very interested in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, because that document, the Bill of Rights, is what really made America so much more different than every other country in the world,” he said.

Law studies and civics teacher Cecil Catolos said guests such as Wainwright help to pique the students’ interest.

“When you bring in somebody from outside the school, it enhances the curriculum and reinforces the curriculum and the students remember what was said,” Catolos said. “When they bring in their expertise it really helps the students, because it’s not just a teacher coming in and teaching the class. Some of the people that come in are more dynamic and bring their specialty to the classroom.”

Catolos said the recent Trayvon Martin case has also caused more students to become more interested in the study of law.

“Recently when we were talking in class about the Trayvon Martin case, the students wanted to know what were the rights of the victims as well as the accused,” he said. “When this particular case happened, our students became interested in whether or not the trial would be fair to the accused and the victim. So, that scenario and event triggered a lot of students.”

Catolos said students learned to look at the situation objectively.

“We had to look at both sides of it, to give students the ability to think about both sides of the issue and to stimulate critical thinking,” he said. “They had to learn to separate their emotions and try to evaluate the law.”